In the age of ubiquitous access to information, library special collections and archives have received renewed attention through digitization projects designed to share collections with the world at large. Yet these materials also offer opportunities for student learning through direct engagement with rare or unique items. While special collections and archives have largely been used by advanced researchers and scholars, an increasing number of undergraduate courses are taking advantage of these materials as guides in the instructional process.

"At core a practical handbook for the self-study and review process, this publication will ground these activities in an understanding of the changing roles of academic libraries in the higher education and information environment. Beyond its use as a manual for cyclical reviews, this volume will underscore the need for libraries to engage in a continuous process of assessment and to demonstrate clear and concrete evidence of value. From the numerous assessment methodologies and approaches discussed to the chapters that challenge those very approaches and methods, the book provides concrete and useful information and raises key questions and provocative caveats about the review process"--

The Silversmith travels to the Outworld; she has come to take Sesame to Karisma for the last time. Her Seeker must return the jewellery box containing the bracelet and twelve charms, and find the missing key, which is needed to lock the heart and complete the bracelet, reuniting all thirteen charms. Charmingly written stories, appealing characters, a beautifully imagined world with its own language - plus a silver charm to add to your bracelet with each book. Collect them all - heart, horseshoe, shell, dolphin, moon, lantern, four leaf clover, snowflake, star, coin, horseshoe, cat and key - and complete the bracelet.

The first book of The Startrail fantasy series, The Startrail: Portal Painter, is a story of friendship, adventure, and fantastical realities that will make you look more closely at the world around you. What if reality was not at all what you thought? Maybe the very fabric of life around you is different from what you have been told. What if there were nearby realms so close and a dire circumstance that required the powers that you hold? All without you knowing... Until you do. Sarah Carlson is an ordinary teenager in every way except for the fact that she has the ability to see things that others cannot. Sarah finds mysterious keys that lead her on a journey to discover her true past and paramount future - a future in the reality that has been there all along. The Startrail is a network of realms all connected by portal paintings. These portals are created by Portal Painters, and their powers have been controlled by an evil dictator. The coveted seafaen is the supernatural ingredient that the Portal Painters need to create the portals, and this too has been hidden and inaccessible. Later, Sarah discovers that she may be a Portal Painter herself and that this is a power that evil individuals wish to control. She must remain vigilant and trust those around her to harness these newfound powers to help assure the survival of the Portal Painter's secret meeting place, The Painter's Keep.

Arizona's rugged Chiricahua Mountains have a special place in frontier history. They were the haven of many well-known personalities, from Cochise to Johnny Ringo, as well as the home of prospectors, cattlemen, and hardscrabble farmers eking out a tough living in an unforgiving landscape. In this delightful and well-researched book, Alden Hayes shares his love for the area, gained over fifty years. From his vantage point near the tiny twin communities of Portal and Paradise on the eastern slopes of the Chiricahuas, Hayes brings the famous and the not-so-famous together in a profile of this striking landscape, showing how place can be a powerful formative influence on people's lives. When Hayes first arrived in 1941 to manage his new father-in-law's apple orchard, he met folks who had been born in Arizona before it became a state. Even if most had never personally worried about Indian attacks, they had known people who had. Over the years, Hayes heard the handed-down stories about the area's early days of Anglo settlement. He also researched census records, newspaper archives, and the files of the Arizona Historical Society to uncover the area's natural history, prehistory, Spanish and Mexican regimes, and particularly its Anglo history from the mid nineteenth century to the beginning of World War II. His book is a rich account of the region and more, a celebration of rural life, brimming with tales of people whose stories were shaped by the landscape. Today the Chiricahuas are a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts and the site of the American Museum of Natural History's Southwestern Research Station—and still a rugged area that remains off the beaten track. Hayes brings his straightforward and articulate style to this captivating account of earlier days in southeastern Arizona and opens up a portal to paradise for readers everywhere.

Hello. I am a book. But I'm also a portal to the universe. I have 112 pages, measuring twenty centimetres high and twenty centimetres wide. I weigh 450 grams. And I have the power to show you the wonders of the world.

As complex, turbulent and spectacular as the gas giant on which it is set, this novel from Iain M. Banks is space opera on a truly epic scale. “An enormously enjoyable book, full of wonderful aliens, a sense of wonder and subtle political commentary on current events.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars. Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known. “Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.” –William Gibson “Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.” –The New York Times For More from Iain M. Banks, check out: The Culture series: Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons The State of the Art Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata

The world of Santhenar has fallen Most of the old allies are dead or captured, and the conquering Merdrun are carving Skyrock into a gigantic tower, with a sapphire-clad tunnel at its base. Is it a horrific new weapon to cleanse the world, so they can take it for their own? Only their arch-sorcerer, the sickening, life-drinking magiz, Dagog, knows. Karan, Flydd and their broken allies have only thirty days to find the answer. Thirty days to unlock nine-year-old Sulien’s hidden memory and reveal the Merdrun’s one fatal weakness. But Sulien has been abducted by the magiz, who needs her talent of far-seeing for his monstrous conspiracy. To save her daughter’s life, Karan will have to break into a compound guarded by 150,000 enemy troops and every magical device known to the enemy. Assuming she can get past the traitor in the allies’ ranks. You won’t want to miss this truly epic fantasy series by a million-selling author What reviewers say about the Three Worlds books “A compelling adventure in a landscape full of wonders.” – Locus “A page-turner of the highest order … Formidable!” – SFX on Geomancer “It is the most engrossing book I’ve read in years.” – Van Ikin, Sydney Morning Herald “Readers of Eddings, Goodkind and Jordan will lap this one up.” – Starlog “Utterly absorbing.” Stephen Davenport, Independent Weekly “For sheer excitement, there’s just no one like Irvine.” SFX on The Destiny of the Dead “As good as anything I have read in the fantasy genre.” – Adelaide Advertiser

•Complete strategy forHalf-Life 2,Half-Life 2: Episode One,Half-Life 2: Episode Two,Portal, andTeam Fortress 2. •Half-Life 2: Enhanced biographies and enemy information showcasing all the new entities! •G-Man locations, hidden item stashes, and more revealed! •Portal: Tactics for every single level, with incredible, mind-bending shortcuts from the development team! •Team Fortress 2: Complete information for all characters and insanely advanced tactics for every map. •Comprehensive list of all Xbox 360 Achievements, with hints for completing them. •Fully labeled maps of every single level in all five games! •Raising the Bar: Exclusive artwork and developer interviews for all games!